Shutter, by Lewis Collard
a site about Lewis taking pictures
This site exists because I want you to get out there, with whatever camera you have, and take much better photographs than I do. I hope you find something of value here that will help you do that. :)
I started writing about this stuff in 2009, and most of it was written between then and 2013. I make no attempt to keep any of it up to date. I'll still like you if you disagree with anything I say on this site; chances are I don't agree with myself either.
Cameras
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Canon A-1
A legendary 35mm camera from the late 1970s, and my favourite camera ever made.
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Canon EOS D30
A long-obsolete, mostly-forgotten 3-megapixel digital SLR.
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Canon T50
An ugly automatic-exposure manual-focus SLR from 1983.
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Canon T90
The first modern camera (1986).
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Fujica ST705
A fully manual M42-mount camera with open-aperture metering.
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Fujifilm X100
A flawed gem. I ragequit my first one, then bought another because I liked it so much.
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Kiev 88 "Hasselbladski"
All the ergonomics of a camera from the 1940s with all the quality control of the Soviet Union.
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Nikon D1
Nikon's most important camera of the 1990s, and one of the most important cameras ever made. There is a sub-article on the PowerSmart aftermarket battery which worked better than Nikon's own ever did.
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Nikon D2H
A little celebration of my D2H which I bought with over 390,000 shutter actuations!
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Nikon D2Hs
A subtly improved D2H. I've owned three of these; I bought ludicrously high-mileage ones then wore them out at drift events.
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Nikon D70
Nikon's first cheap digital SLR, from 2004.
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Nikon F55
Plastic film SLR from the early-to-mid-2000s.
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Olympus Trip 35
No batteries required! There is a sub-article on how to focus it.
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Pentax ZX-M/MZ-M
The plastic-fantastic miracle. Weighs less than the motordrive for the A-1! I got it for free.
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Praktica MTL3
An extremely tough, fully-manual SLR camera from the late 70s.
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Samsung Galaxy S2
Reviewing the camera on 2011's finest Android phone. (Yep, this site has been around for a while!)
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Nikon bargain digital SLR deathmatch!
D2H vs D200 vs D70 vs D1! This was written back when these cameras were merely very cheap; these days you can get any of them almost for free.
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Ancient professional bargain SLR DEATHMATCH!
Nikon D2Hs vs Canon EOS 1D Mark II! Again, any of these cameras cost almost nothing then and cost even less now.
Lenses
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Mir-26b 45mm f/3.5
A chunky 45mm lens for the Kiev 88 and friends.
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Nikon 18-55mm vs 18-70mm
Kit lens comparison. Use what you have.
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Nikon 18-200mm VR
The most useful lens for small-sensor Nikon digital SLRs. Maybe the most versatile lens ever made!
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Nikon 55-200mm VR
One of Nikon's cheapest telephotos, and an inexplicably good one.
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Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D
A standard f/2.8 pro telephoto. As good as it gets, but I didn't like carrying it.
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Nikon Series E 70-210mm f/4
A great manual focus Nikon lens.
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Pentacon 50mm f/1.8
A 50mm lens for M42 cameras.
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Compatibility of M42 lenses with modern camera systems
How useful are your M42 lenses on modern cameras?
Films
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Kodak Ektar 100
The best colour negative film for landscapes and stills.
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Fuji Neopan 400CN
A great C-41 process black-and-white film.
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Tudor colour negative film
I got it free with developing. Even cheap films look awesome!
Camera-adjacent
Some things that aren't cameras, but are closely related.
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Darktable on Linux
Completely free and very good raw processing software. There are sub-articles on getting its vignetting tool to look right, its highlight reconstruction, and its EXIF preservation.
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Lowepro Nova 1 camera bag
A tiny and entirely excellent little bag. You probably won't find one that is still in one piece these days.
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Nissin 360 TW
A cheap and very powerful 1980s flash gun.
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Yongnuo RF-600TX and RF-602RX radio remotes
Off-camera flash on the cheap!
Technical, opinions, etc
The technical parts articles here still hold up. The opinions less so. These days I try to have no more opinions than are strictly necessary. I'd much rather talk about what I did and things I like instead, rather than tell anyone else what they should be doing.
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Making big prints from ancient low-resolution cameras
How big can you print from a 4.1 megapixel camera? You might be surprised!
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Background blur
In which I examine background blur with lots of pretty graphs.
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Against the Kodak myth
The story of Kodak is not a cautionary tale about not adapting to the times.
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Better product photography, for free!
How to get great product photographs on a budget of nothing.
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Everything you've learned from photography websites is wrong
"Top 10 photography mistakes" lists are just "top 10 reasons I am smarter than you" gatekeeping. Ignore the nerds; go take photographs.
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The £30 macro lens for Canon EOS cameras
In which I tell you why you should hit a teleconverter with a hammer.
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"Why are you taking photographs of that?"
Unique photographs are where everyone else isn't looking.
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Cheap film cameras
A page of ideas/recommendations for cheap film cameras, for those who want to get into film photography.
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The Lytro gimmick
In the late 2000s, the gadget sites were claiming Lytro would be the future of photography. I got annoyed, and wrote this. I don't like my style in retrospect.